StarDog Photo does the talking

This post, I'll let my friend Shelle Singer of StarDog Photo do the talking, via her recent newsletter:



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Rebecca and Finn run through "the cathedral" at Cougar Mountain. The Bark chose this photo.
I've never been much of an outdoors person. And a walk in the woods has never been an attractive proposition. But when my friend and writer Rebecca Wallick asked if I would accompany her to Cougar Mountain for some trail photography, I instantly agreed.
Rebecca is a dog nut through and through and a fantastic writer. She is a contributing editor to The Bark magazine. She had just written a review of a GPS system that attaches to a dog so you can track them if they run off and…chase a cougar. The story was ready for publication but the magazine was asking for photographs. That was to be my contribution.
So early one Saturday I head out to meet Rebecca and her Aussie, Finn McCool. The plan is we drive to Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park, the gem of King County's 25,000-acre park system (reading brochure). I've lived in WA State for nearly 30 years and I've never been to the gem.
Rebecca runs Cougar Mountain trails every weekend with Finn. She needs her weekly run so she will run with the dog for an HOUR while I sit on my butt taking flower portraits. Then we will head out to photograph Finn with the GPS on his neck. Cool. An hour later neither of them is winded and my knees hurt from crouching on the ground.
We hit the trail and it is actually kind of nice. We saw runners and other dogs with their owners but overall pretty quiet. We would stop and I would photograph Finn running on trails while wearing the GPS, running with Rebecca, both of them running. I had them run a trail-click-click-click-click-go back and do it again. We were looking for THE ONE that tells the story.
After a few photo stops Rebecca said she had a really neat spot in mind to photograph. She called it the cathedral and asked if I wouldn't mind hiking a bit to get there. If we could get something really special it would be worth it.
We hiked a while and Rebecca, knowing I was not the trail runner she was, made sure I knew it was "not much further" or "just around the bend" lots of times. Mind you, I had my sling bag with the camera, a small flash set and my tripod but I gallantly trudged on.
Finally we arrived at the most gorgeous spot with beautiful trees criss-crossing over the trail and reminiscent of a cathedral.
The clouds were beginning to part and we had some brighter light so I could use a faster shutter speed. Remember Finn is racing up and down the trails and I'm supposed to have him in focus.
We did the Rebecca and Finn running toward the camera a dozen times with no complaints. She LOVES running and it shows. She always had a smile on her face.
We found an amazing little alcove surrounded by trees, branches and leaves where I photographed Rebecca and Finn for a few quiet portraits.
We had started our day at 7:00AM and it was now approaching noon. Time to go. We parted ways with Finn only stopping when he was confined in the car for the ride home.
I got some really great shots (my humble opinion) and the editor of the magazine picked out a shot Rebecca and Finn (with GPS prominent around his neck) running through the cathedral toward me. Rebecca's suggestion was spot on for the location.
The article is in the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of The Bark magazine.
I am still not a hiker but now I have bragging rights. That is well worth the pain and suffering.
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Feel free to forward this newsletter to your animal loving friends and family.
I have updated StarDog Photo Facebook page and I'm looking for folks to swing by and have a look.
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